U.S. Navy Accepts Boeing ‘P-8A’ Aircraft Simulators

Program includes an operational flight trainer, a weapons tactics trainer and four electronic classrooms

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Boeing has delivered a second set of P-8A Poseidon training devices—including an operational flight trainer, a weapons tactics trainer and four electronic classrooms—to the newly commissioned U.S. Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla.

In addition, by the end of 2012 Boeing is to deliver seven more OFTs and four more WTTs and two part-task trainers, and more than two-dozen classrooms and attendant courseware to the Navy facility, which was dedicated on March 28.

The training facility includes a full-visual operational flight trainer that simulates the flight deck of the P-8A, as well as a weapons trainer for crew training, according to Boeing. The technology prepares P-8A pilots and crew in the operation of the aircraft’s anti-surface and anti-submarine technologies, the company says.

“The P-8A Weapons Tactics Trainer is a new innovation for Boeing,” said Mark McGraw, Boeing Training Systems and Government Services’ vice president. “Unlike previously delivered tactics trainers, it can be used to train multiple mission operators at the same time.”

The Navy is acquiring 117 of the P-8A aircraft to replace its aging P-3 fleet. Boeing officially delivered the first of 13 P-8A Poseidons to the Navy in early March. Boeing’s weapons tactics trainer has five crew workstations and five instructor-operator stations to train crew on the aircraft’s maritime sensor and communications systems, and to control and deployment of its weapons, according to the company.

Pilots can accurately cue onboard weapons and sensors against enemy aircraft and ground targets without the need to aggressively turn the aircraft or place the target in the head up display field-of-view for designation